Category Archives: New Resources

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The exhibit showcases the rich history of art and science in Providence and provokes you to consider the consequences of environmental change on local biodiversity. Premiering original watercolors of plants by Edward Peckham together with matching specimens from the Brown University Herbarium, collected by William Bailey and others, explore the lost Cat Swamp habitat of the Wayland and Blackstone neighborhoods on the East Side.

This exhibition is the collaborative work of the Brown University Herbarium, Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS), Rhode Island Wild Plant Society (RIWPS), and John Hay Library.

From where exactly do the Islamic arts originate is the question at the center of this exhibition. While the answer perhaps seems intuitive— the Islamic Middle East—the reality is far more complex. The Islamic arts have from their beginnings existed in circulation and conversation with an array of work originating in China, India, and Europe.

Explore Iranian ceramics from the Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology’s Minassian Collection and learn about their transcultural aesthetic references.

Letter from Christopher Scott to Nathan Nield, December 31, 1792
Brown University Library, Special Collections

This piece of paper, sent from Christopher Scott of Petersburg to Nathan Nield of Mercer County, served as both letter and, when folded, as envelope, with a red wax seal.

Known today as “slave carried mail,” this letter was carried by “a Negro woman Murier” and contains information about an exchange of Murier for another enslaved female named Christian.

The Library invites you to parse the contents of the letter. What does this artifact tell us about the history of the country? Of commerce in the U.S.? What does it tell us about the struggles women have faced as well as the fraught nature of relationships? Why is preserving items like this so important to contemporary research?

With more than 1.5 billion names in over 4,000 databases, Ancestry Library includes records from the United States Census; military records; court, land and probate records; vital and church records; directories; passenger lists and more!

Fold3 provides convenient access to military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served. The Fold3 name comes from a traditional flag folding ceremony in which the third fold is made in honor and remembrance of veterans who served in defense of their country and to maintain peace throughout the world.

Access to a new eresource has been added on the Databases A-Z list on the Library Web. The United Nations Digital Library (UNDL) is now a freely accessible online resource.

Current and historical: provides a single access point to UN information. Allows for exploration of documents and publications, voting data, maps, speeches, images and sounds, and more. Additional collections of digital materials will be added as they are created or are made available by UN departments, offices, and agencies. Covers most UN bodies such as the General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, the Human Rights bodies, and many more. [This resource is publicly available.]

Since 2016, the library has been printing 3D objects for students, faculty, and staff using a ProJet 660 Pro 3D printer, which creates colored objects out of gypsum powder.

This exhibit showcases some of the varied work created over the last two years using the printer and the artwork of Zak Ziebell ‘19, currently studying painting at RISD and Symbolic Systems at Brown University. He began working for the Rockefeller Library’s Center for Digital Scholarship in 2016, and was the Studio’s artist-in-residence over the summer of 2017.

For more information about the Sidney E. Frank Digital Studio and its 3D printing services, please visit: library.brown.edu/create/digitalstudio

Currently on View: Selections from the Thomas H. Simon Circus Collection

The Thomas H. Simon Circus Collection contains more than 200 items, primarily about the American circus arts, including first-edition books, pennants, programs, stamps, drawings and promotional materials dating from the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries.

Simon graduated with a degree in philosophy from Brown University in 1954. An avid reader of American history, he completed a Master of Arts in History at Xavier University in Cincinnati in 1987. He was President of Schaefer Tailoring Company (Cincinnati), founder of People, Places and Things (1976), and served as a dedicated member of the Brown University Library Advisory Council for more than a decade.

“T’Challa is the Black Panther – a righteous king, noble Avenger, and fearsome warrior. Under his leadership, the African nation of Wakanda has flourished as one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. And though he’s a card-carrying member of the Avengers, his first loyalty lies with his people, and he will defend them to his last breath.” – Marvel

The Black Panther (T’Challa) made his comic strip debut in Fantastic Four: “The Black Panther” (Vol 1 #52) in July 1966. The superhero character premiered in his first solo series in 1977, followed by periodic runs through 2016.

Originally created by Stan Lee (writer) and Jack Kirby (penciler) during the era of the civil rights struggle, the comic addressed the lack of black superheroes in the broader American narrative. The Black Panther’s significance is multilayered and includes anti-stereotypical representation, self-empowerment, and connectivity to Africa. T’Challa is as relevant today as when first created, as witnessed by the record-breaking box-office sales for the Black Panther movie and the character’s popularity on social media.

The Michael J. Ciaraldi Collection

Michael J. Ciaraldi began collecting in the early 1970s. The collection consists of 60,000 comic books, published from the 1970s to 1995. The most significant sections are comprised of magazine-format comics; graphic novels; fan and collector’s journals; reissues of classic “golden age” comics and newspaper strips; translations of Japanese “manga” and “anime” comics and European comic art; compilations of the work of comic artists; advertising ephemera; role-playing game materials; and adult erotica.

The Dr. Steven Ungerleider Collection of Haggadot, presenting the text recited on the first two nights of the Jewish Passover, represents a remarkable array of geographic, linguistic, and temporal diversity. Encompassing more than four hundred years of Jewish culture, from the Ottoman Empire in 1505 to the State of Israel in the 1950s, the collection is comprised of haggadot from Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and the Near East. It incorporates a wide range of Jewish vernacular languages, from Yiddish and Ladino to Judeo-Italian and Judeo-Arabic in representative exemplars from Jewish communities across the globe, many long since dispersed.

The current exhibition, Haggadah: Telling and Retelling the Story of Jewish Liberation, highlights the breadth and depth of the Ungerleider Collection. This extraordinary gift to the University honors Dr. Steven Ungerleider’s father, Samuel Ungerleider, Jr. ‘39.

The exhibition will be on display in the lobby and main gallery of the John Hay Library from Monday, March 5, through Friday, June 15, 2018.